This invention relates generally to a reconfigurable bag and specifically to a reconfigurable bag which can be disassembled and pieces of which can be reassembled in order to form different bags.
People today live very busy lives, often running from work to a date or other evening engagement. For women, in particular, this can cause many problems due to the fact that often a woman's work attire is not appropriate as evening attire. This problem can also be reflected in a woman's bag or purse. The purse that she carries to work may be big and have all the necessities for a day at the office, however, an evening purse such as a clutch is much smaller and contains only the essentials for a night on the town. While a woman could carry around multiple purses, this can be difficult when she is using public transportation or the like. Therefore, it is desirable for a woman to have a purse or bag that can easily convert from a daytime bag to an evening clutch.
People today also have a need for many different types of bags or purses. For instance, a woman may own a large purse for everyday use, a smaller purse for daytime activities that do not require as large a purse, a computer bag or briefcase and the evening bag or clutch discussed in the previous paragraph. People in general and women in particular invest a lot of money in bags and purses in order to have the right bag for the occasion. Women also devote a large amount of storage space in their homes to the storage of the many bags and purses that they require. It would, therefore, be desirable to have a bag or a purse that could be converted from a large daytime purse to a smaller purse, computer bag or clutch and then easily converted back to the large daytime purse or to any of the other types of bags or purses.
In the prior art, there are examples of convertible purses. For instance, there are several patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,254, issued to Fromm, which describe a base purse or liner which is slipped inside various purse covers in order to obtain different looks. Patents like U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,204, issued to Byers et al., describe purses which have interchangeable closure flaps in order to give the purse different looks for different occasions. U.S. Publication No. 2009/0288744, filed by Moshieisfahini et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 3,994,372, issued to Geller et al., describe purses that have detachable side panels. Once the side panels are detached, the purse body is simply a rectangle of material. The purse can then be packed flat in a suitcase or such. U.S. Publication No. 2010/0218862, filed by Ellermeyer, describes a purse having a bottom portion that can be removed and then the bottom of the purse can be used as a clutch. The prior art does not, however, describe a purse that can be converted from a daytime purse to a computer bag, smaller purse or clutch and then easily be converted again to any of the other forms.
Accordingly, what is needed is a reconfigurable bag or purse which can be converted to a variety of other types of bags or purses and then easily converted back to the original form or to any of the other types of bags or purses.